Language
A group of cats is called a clowder. A group of kittens is a kindle. These are not made up. Your group chat is now legally obligated.
Oxford English Dictionary
Citation-carrying, vet-verified, occasionally life-altering. If a fact is unverified, it is labeled "opinion." We don't play.
Fact of the day · #047
Your cat's nose print is as unique as a human fingerprint. No two are alike. This has been used, successfully, to identify lost pedigree cats in Switzerland.
Source: International Cat Care, ASPCA
Language
A group of cats is called a clowder. A group of kittens is a kindle. These are not made up. Your group chat is now legally obligated.
Oxford English Dictionary
History
Isaac Newton invented the cat flap. He allegedly cut two holes in his door: a big one for his cat, and a small one for her kittens. He was a genius in every respect but one.
Trinity College Cambridge archives — possibly apocryphal, still delightful
Anatomy
The primordial pouch — the saggy belly flap — is not fat. It exists for protection during fights and to allow greater stretch while running. Your vet confirms this every time.
Cornell Feline Health Center
Anatomy
Cats have 32 muscles in each ear. They can rotate them 180 degrees, each one independently. This is how they hear you opening the treat drawer from 3 rooms away.
Veterinary Medical Association
Anatomy
Cats cannot taste sweet things. They lack a functional Tas1r2 gene. Your cat is not eating your ice cream for the sugar — just the fat and the cold.
Monell Chemical Senses Center, 2005
Anatomy
A cat's purr (25–150 Hz) falls within the therapeutic range for bone density and tissue healing. Yes, the purring is medicinal. Yes, you should take this personally.
Fauna Communications Research Institute
History
The oldest known domesticated cat was found in a 9,500-year-old human grave in Cyprus. Before the Egyptians got involved. Before the internet. Before any of this.
Vigne et al., Science, 2004
Anatomy
A cat's whiskers are roughly the width of its body. They use them to measure gaps before squeezing through. This is also why overweight cats get stuck.
Royal Veterinary College
Behaviour
Cats sleep 12–16 hours per day on average. That's roughly 70% of their lives. They are not being lazy; they are being evolutionarily optimal.
National Geographic Animals
Anatomy
Cats can't see anything directly below their nose — a 4-inch blind spot. This is why the treat you drop in front of them may as well be in another dimension.
Veterinary Ophthalmology, Gelatt 5th ed.
Genuinely weird
The oldest verified cat, Creme Puff of Austin, Texas, lived to 38 years and 3 days. Her owner also had another cat that lived to 34. Statistically suspicious. Legally above-board.
Guinness World Records
History
Stubbs was the honorary Mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, for 20 years (1997–2017). He held court at the general store. He is survived by the office, which has remained feline.
City of Talkeetna records
Behaviour
Cats can jump up to six times their body length in a single leap. Allegedly fridge-tops are engineered around this. Allegedly.
Journal of Experimental Biology, 2013
Language
A female cat is a queen. A male is a tom. A neutered male is a gib. A cat of unknown gender is, by default, extremely on purpose.
Oxford English Dictionary
Anatomy
Cats sweat only through their paw pads. Damp pawprints on a hot day are not an accident — they are how your cat tries to regulate her temperature.
American Veterinary Medical Association
Behaviour
Cats recognise their own names. They simply elect not to respond. Confirmed by a 2019 study out of Sophia University, Tokyo. We are so sorry.
Saito et al., Scientific Reports, 2019
History
All domestic cats descend from a single wildcat subspecies: Felis silvestris lybica, the African wildcat, from the Fertile Crescent. You and your cat are distantly related to a very rude animal.
Driscoll et al., Science, 2007
Genuinely weird
A cat's heart beats roughly 140 times per minute — nearly twice as fast as a human's. This is why they feel so urgent to hold.
Merck Veterinary Manual
Anatomy
A cat's vision extends to 200 degrees (humans: 180). But they see in roughly what we'd call "faded" colour — more muted, less saturated. The world is, to them, an indie film.
ASPCA, University of Pennsylvania
Genuinely weird
Cats cannot be accurately described as solitary or social. They are facultatively social — meaning, they will be social if it suits them, and not if it doesn't. Like certain people.
Bradshaw, Cat Sense, 2013
Language
Adult cats almost exclusively meow at humans, not at each other. They developed this specifically for us. Your cat is not talking to the other cats in the house. She is talking to you.
Cornell Feline Health Center
Contribute
We accept submissions, provided they come with a real citation. "My aunt told me" is not a citation. "My aunt told me, and she's a vet" is considered.